Month: August 2015

Fresh Produce for Buffalo Families

As the cost of food rises, especially fresh fruits and vegetables it is becoming increasingly difficult for the poor on Buffalo’s East Side to provide a healthy balanced diet to their families. Recognizing this need in the Western New York community, AT&T is working with the Food Bank of Western New York to provide a weekly delivery of fresh produce to Response to Love Center.

The Response to Love Center provides food to nearly 500 individuals monthly through its food pantry, and helps to support local Families, Veterans; seniors and provides Adult Education including English as a Second Language and TASC (High School Equivalency.)

Starting Monday August 31, 2015, and throughout the next 17 weeks, the Food Bank of Western New York will deliver 22 cases – approximately 800 pounds – of fresh produce, including broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, yellow onions, white potatoes, apples and navel oranges, weekly to Response to Love Center. AT&T’s contribution will result in more than 370 cases or approximately 13,600 pounds of fresh produce for our hungry neighbors in Buffalo.

“We are extremely grateful for this collaboration between the Food Bank of Western New York and AT&T, which will provide 17 weeks of fruits and vegetables to approximately 500 individuals who rely on Response to Love Center’s food pantry each month,” said Michael Gilhooly, Assistant Director of Response to Love Center. “It is a struggle for many of our clients to obtain fresh produce due to geographic and economic barriers, and this wonderful donation will provide them access to nutritious food which they might not have otherwise been able to receive.

Giving back to the community where AT&T colleagues live and work is part of the company’s corporate DNA. For 100 years, AT&T employees have been donating their time and talents to support underserved populations and strengthen communities.

“AT&T’s generous contribution and partnership with the Food Bank helps us to fulfill our mission to obtain and distribute nutritious food to the hungry in Western New York through our 326 member agencies, including Response to Love Center.” said Marylou Borowiak, President & CEO of the Food Bank of Western New York

As reported on WGRZ.com
“BUFFALO, N.Y. — Pope Francis will visit the U.S. for the first time next month, and a familiar face to many Western New Yorkers is heading to Washington, D.C. to see him.
Sister Mary Johnice with the Response to Love Center received a special invitation from Congressman Brian Higgins.

Sister Johnice was sitting in her office one afternoon when she got the call.
“To my surprise, he said, did you enjoy the Hunger Walk? I said, yeah, I really did. And he said well, I just want you to know that I do have a ticket for Congress and the Holy Father will be coming to Washington, and I’d like you to be my guest,” said Sister Johnice.

The Holy Father’s universal prayer intention for August is: “That volunteers may give themselves generously to the service of the needy”.

She is going to see Pope Francis when he addresses a Joint Meeting of Congress next month.
“And I said, oh, I am overwhelmed, I don’t know what to say. But, uh, yes! I would love to go,” she recalls. “It was like a miracle. It was something that I never expected. But God’s full of surprises, so you don’t need to expect anything.”
Sister Johnice will also represent the Diocese at the Canonization of Junipero Serra, the missionary who founded missions in California.
This will be her third time seeing the Pope. She in New York City when Pope John Paul the Second visited, and our MaryAlice Demler caught up with her when Pope Benedict visited New York City in 2008.
“I didn’t meet them personally. Probably, the most important person I met in my life was Mother Theresa. So these are important people and I just think, God, why do you allow this? You know? Someone like me? And he says, well, I want you to just spread the message,” she says.
She says Pope Francis is a man of prayer and poverty and she looks forward to hearing his message.
“He’s a gentle person with a strong message. He’s a powerful person, but he doesn’t condemn. He embraces. He goes to the downtrodden. He goes to the broken. He goes to the people in need. That’s what we should be doing. The world would be a better place if we followed that example,” she says.
And Sister Johnice wants all of Western New York to know she will be thinking about us when she is in Washington.
“It’s not about me going there, but it’s me taking people in my heart. The Felician community, the City of Buffalo, the people from Response to Love Center, and I thought, what a glorious opportunity to be able to meet someone who is the leader of the Church, my boss, my hero, and just to be there and carry back the message of whatever he is going to say,” she says. See the video CLICK HERE!